Finishing an Undergraduate Degree – the end of an era

So exams are over, the Summer Ball has been and gone and in a few weeks time it will be graduation!  How did the time pass so quickly?!  Of course none of this hit me until a few days ago, I was taking a taxi to the train station and the driver and I were making the usual taxi small talk and he inevitably asks the question ‘So are you a student at the university?’, I pause for a moment and then I answer ‘Not anymore!’.  What a strange feeling, after three years of studying for my BA Philosophy, Politics and Economics degree it’s finally done.   All I have to do now is wait for the results (which are going to be released frighteningly soon) and then (hopefully) graduate!

I know everyone says it but it really is true, three years flies by.  I can still remember arriving in my Freshers’ week in 2009, my parents helping me cart all my belongings up three flights of stairs before leaving me to unpack in my new home for the year.  Soon it will be coming to that time when I’ll be frantically cleaning my privately rented accommodation in the hopes of reclaiming my security deposit.  After three years at Essex I can honestly say I have learnt A LOT, not just through my course, but about myself! 

For many students an undergraduate degree is the first time they’ve been away from home for a significant period of time, it’s the first time they have to cook for themselves, do their own laundry, be their own motivator.  There is so much life learning to be done on the way to obtaining a degree.  Essex gave me the opportunity to become an independent adult, on top of all the fun that I’ve had, I’ve learnt to be responsible through managing my studies and gaining work experience and I feel so much closer to actually being a grown-up!  Don’t get me wrong, I’ll always feel like a child at heart but at least now I know that I can fend for myself, I’m ready (as I’ll ever be) to venture out into the “real world”...whatever that is!

Puja